The use of manual toothbrushes has, of course, been know for many years. Indeed, the use of mechanical toothbrushes, typically those which are electrically driven, has been known for a number of years. The purpose, in any event, is to clean the teeth, usually with a toothbrush which comprises a plurality of bristles that are used in conjunction with a dentifrice. Very often, the dentifrice is mildly abrasive.
The dental profession has propounded, for many years, a technique known as the "Bass Technique" which, if properly performed, is said to achieve superior results in terms of cleaning one's teeth using a manual toothbrush. Essentially, the Bass Technique requires the user to position a manual toothbrush over a zone of the teeth, and then to use very short stokes so as to more or less vibrate the brush at that zone where the brush has been located. This short-stroke brushing should continue for a period of time--typically, twenty strokes to forty strokes--so as to remove any foreign material from that zone. The brush is then repositioned and typically another twenty to forty short strokes are performed. Because each zone is very small, the Bass Technique can be very time consuming. Moreover, since it is a requirement that the strokes be very short which, in turn, requires excellent muscle control, exercising the Bass Technique can be very tiring.
The theory is that, at the end of any given stroke, the bristles will flex so as to become oriented in such a manner that the ends of the bristles point generally away from the direction of the travel of the bristles across the teeth. However, at the beginning of the next stroke, in the opposite direction, the still-flexed bristles will then be pointed in the direction of the stroke and this may cause the bristle to chisel the foreign material away from the teeth for a moment before the bristle again begins to flex so as to sweep across the surface of the tooth in the zone where it is located.
Even if a person were able to maintain a vigorous pace of three strokes per second, the typical performance of a Bass Technique cleansing of the teeth would take more than four minutes. Typically, most people will quit brushing their teeth after about one minute. Therefore, while excellent in theory, the Bass Technique is impractical.
A purpose of the present invention is to provide an electromechanical toothbrush--that is, an electrically driven, mechanical toothbrush, most typically referred to as an electric toothbrush--which will permit the user to perform a tooth cleaning procedure which essentially emulates the Bass Technique. In other words, by using the toothbrush of the present invention, the user will be able to locate the toothbrush at a given zone for a short period of time, while executing a plurality of very short strokes quite rapidly, and then move on to the next zone while having achieved efficient cleaning of the teeth.
Apart from the removal of leftover food particles and the like, a particular purpose for cleaning the teeth is to remove plaque build-up from the teeth. Typically, when using a manual toothbrush, plaque build-up is removed much more easily from the buccal surfaces of the teeth than from the lingual surfaces of the teeth, with relatively good foreign material removal from the occlusal surfaces of the teeth also being achieved.
One development that has occurred in respect of manual toothbrushes is the provision of twin-headed brushes, whereby the lingual and buccal surfaces of the tooth can be scrubbed using the bristles of the brush at the same time, with the same stroking action of the brush.
As to electric toothbrushes, most electric toothbrushes provide groups of bristles which are located in concentric circles, where the brush head thus provided is rotated or, more usually, it is reciprocally rotated.